Yes, we skipped a number. And for good reason! For our Ten-Year Anniversary Release, special focus was placed on playability and we've met with quite some success there! But of course there IS new content too.

Ten years ago, in 2003, a little game was released called "Pirates of the Caribbean". It was a rushed attempt at cashing in on the first film of its namesake franchise and unfortunately did not quite live up to its potential. We have come a long way since then!

So welcome to the Ten-Year Anniversary Release of our famous Build Mod,
now better known as "New Horizons".

Special Effects

While Build 13 already contained much improved effects over the original game, it turns out it is possible to do it even better!

Pay close attention to the powder embers trailing out of the barrels after a volley. There are three settings, ranging from simple puffs of smoke to complete and utter fog every time you throw a broadside at your enemies!

Massive Gameplay Improvements

A lot of the work that has been done in this release is difficult to show as it involves more behind-the-scenes gameplay mechanics. For example, many bugs have been fixed and all the firearms have been rebalanced, making the game much more playable even at higher levels.

Additionally, you can now gain Leadership skill also without playing any quests, which is of great help to those wishing to engage in Free Play.

But your relations with nations now play a much bigger role as storekeepers and shipyards will no longer trade with their enemies. UNLESS you are so good at trading that you manage to convince them to help you out anyway. But always for a price!

On the other hand, pirates don't like you if you are too much of a nice guy! And those former yellow-bellied dogs called "town guards"? Well, just beware of them now! They're no longer such pushovers as they once were!

Realism Options and Menus

It may look a bit less epic than what else we show in this brief overview, but that doesn't make these changes any less substantial. Most importantly, you can at long last freely use the Options Menu and New Game buttons again! And there are now three Realism Modes that are clearly explained.

And improvements have been made to many other interfaces, including a complete rewrite of the Buy/Sell Cannons one. This has fixed exploits that were in there before and also enhanced your freedom in installing or removing cannons as you please.

Ship Model Updates

We like ships. Especially when they look good. So we have been taking up every opportunity to improve on the original game's ships. For example the Aurora class Frigates (former Corvettes) were already updated before, but this time we went the whole nine yards.

She looks exceptionally good taking back her original place in the French squadron blockading Speightstown at the beginning of the original game's storyline. And this time she is joined by a new high-detail model: The Centurion.

But true pirates don't deal with such unwieldy castles. Speed and manoeuvrability is where the advantage is! Which is exactly what you'll get with the new 'Arcadia' Xebec. She's a rare sight outside the Mediterranean, but therefore not a less accomplished vessel for some proper piratin'.

But making speed without worrying about the wind is also a possibility, of course. They only appear in the last two Time Periods and even then are very rare, but Steam Frigates are a real thing and they work perfectly well, even if you have one of your crewmembers take command of one.

Free Play and Storylines

One thing people always seem to like is to be allowed to do whatever they want in the game. So for that purpose, there is now one storyline that allows Free Play in each of the six Time Periods. We even added a new Free Play Only storyline where you take the role of famous French buccaneer Jean Lafitte and have to decide what to do in a constantly changing game world.

There is unrest brewing in the Caribbean. Nations make and break alliances at their slightest whim. You had better keep an eye on all recent developments, lest you find yourself caught in the middle of a war! Although... there is something to be said for that!

In addition to that, all storylines that encourage Free Play now have various sidequests added, in case you get bored of completely going on by yourself without any specific goals whatsoever.

Our storylines now have some nice little secrets hidden in them that become available when you use the mod's Cheatmode. And as such, the famous Head of Blackbeard makes a mysterious appearance in the opening scene of the Woodes Rogers storyline. What could this be for?

Similarly, the opening of the Bartolomeu o Portugues storyline allows you access to the city of Cartagena in Columbia. This will become a location for interesting quests in a future update later this year. But until that is released, you can go exploring there on your own!

Hidden Treasure and Other Secrets

The archipelago in our game is a vast place, riddled with treasures and other secrets. And treasure-searching has never been this much fun! Complete with "X Marks the Spot" on your Map.

But be prepared for scoundrels and swindlers to follow the trail of the gold, along with you. So you may be encountering some enemies along the way. But nothing beats finding the spot with the buried treasure and uncovering the chest that contains the loot!

Have you already met Captain Hendrick Vanderdecken? This retired seafarer and former owner of the famous Flying Dutchman has taken up residence in a shipwreck on an island that cannot be found, except for those who already know where it is.

And there he sells special ships. These are truly one-of-a-kind. But beware! There is always a price to be paid for these sort of... arrangements...

So are you in for a challenge? Try to find Clint Eastwood! Don't ask us how, but somehow a tough gun-slinger has decided to hide away from the world in a hidden house in the jungle. But rumour has it that he has a "magic" gun of some kind. Worth investigating?

And have you found your secret hide-out yet? For if you want to lie low for a while yourself? A hidden cave with a shipwreck in sounds like the perfect spot!

Improved Intel GFX Card Compatibility

Remember how the original game just plain would not work on computers with an Intel Integrated Graphics Card? Of course we finally managed to get a fix that runs smoothly with Build 14 Beta 2.3.

But this time around, we even made it look good! It has better water than the first version and no more glitchy reflections.

Setting Sail

With all that said, we shall leave you to your own pirating fun! But be sure to keep an eye on this spot, because we do have more in the works. And something quite substantial at that! Both on continued New Horizons releases, but of course also our new game project Hearts of Oak: Conquest of the Seas. And if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to participate in our survey for that game!

AHH, I have to find my copy of the game again. Since you started this mod I've changed pc three times, but this game stays. It's truely epic, I don't even know how many hours of fun are in the whole game, as I've never played through all of the campaigns. One of the best mods ever. Get it!

Thanks for your kind words. I'm pretty sure you can get several months' worth of gameplay out of the mod. Especially if you try to do and find everything there is to do and find. And that doesn't even include the endless Free Play potential. :-P

It's on Win7. It's different from Program Files. I reinstalled the game and mod to a different folder. And I think I fixed it. The text errors seem to be gone and the mod is properly patched. Thanks for your help!

Oh. And one (well, two) more questions. 1: I'm having trouble getting the game to fit my screen. Any way to fix that? And 2: Were some of the options in the preferences menu eliminated between 2.1 and 2.2? It seems that there are less options since I patched it.

1. We removed Config.exe on purpose, because it causes more troubles than it solves. Open engine.ini with Notepad and make the changes directly in there.
That works much better. Especially since it allows you to use more resolutions than Config.exe did, such as the 1600x900 I've been using.

Set screen_x and screen_y to your desktop resolution. Recommend setting fullscreen to 0. This makes the game run in windowed mode and allows you to Alt+Tab in and out.

2. Indeed we have been cleaning up the Game Preferences menu and getting rid of needless and confusing options. Many of them were just moved to PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h and not completely eliminated.

Are there any specific ones you do need? The clean-up is experimental and we'd appreciated feedback on the results.

I don't have any problems with the resolution per se. It's just when I set the game to 1600x900 it seems to be like I'm watching a widescreen movie with 2 black bars on the top and bottom. The screen also seems to be shifted to the right as well. When I run it in 1280x1024 it's fine.

As for the options, I forget a lot of the missing ones. The only two that stick out in my mind that may want to be re-included are the ships surrendering bar and the random/skill-based encounter boxes.

1. You had that fullscreen set to 0 right? That "shifted to the right" issue sounds like a problem I had at times. I managed to fix it by going to the properties of ENGINE.exe > Compatibility and then setting the game to run in the compatibility mode for "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2). Perhaps that works for you too?

3. The random/skill-based encounters are in Options>Difficulty with the "[Player] will be notified of all encounters" button. We noticed that we basically had the same setting twice, so removed one of the two.

What month are you playing in? We've got the real Caribbean wet and dry season coded into the game and there is a maximal chance of storms especially in September and October. Could that be what is happening?

Well I know its lame to cheat but I like to keep two games going one with a bit of realism and the other to just have fun! So adding a quick option to turn cheats on and of in config would be nice. And as to the previous remark about the video. Sadly if I us the windowed option the game is far to dark :( that is why I stopped by today to get a idea of where to change it now that it was part of the install I wasn't sure where to go back to till now. Thanks :)

You guys are genius!
Now once more a reason to grab the powdered copy and install it again! Played it years ago and loved it as a child.
Now, I will turn into a pirate again and discover one of the best games ever, imo.

Ive tried to play this build a couple of days now but i find it impossible to play. I always get destroyed by forts or very near death after i repair my ship. Also fighting is very difficult and makes me afraid.

Which difficulty level are you playing at? Why are the forts even firing on you? You shouldn't go near hostile ones. Also, make good use of false flags while you are still unknown enough for enemies to believe you.

Personally I never get round to playing much, so I'd recommend you post at Piratesahoy.net so the people who DO play can give you some suggestions on surviving.

Hey! I love it, it's working but I can't complete my training mission. I picked up everything out of the weapons locker and the other, big chest, equipping my sword, pistol, & spyglass. And he still says "it seems you haven't equiped the weapons-locker yet, sir." Well, B.S. I'm frustrated. There was 6 more bullets & powder than I could carry so I tried moving them to the other chest as I can't drop them anywhere else and still I'm stuck! Help?! >_<!!

Ok, I have a real problem with this: the game is running OK but after playing for a few minutes if I try to save the game it says "you can't save without an active profile loaded." I have no idea why the game is doing this.

Also why when we strafe are we able to glide through all walls & objects? I saw this in the vanilla game too recently and I don't get why, unless it's a specific issue running this on windows 8, though I have my doubts.

I still have this problem where I can't save a game because it says my profile isn't active?!
Also despite not being able to safe I've tried getting tru the tutorial start and started to sail but it doesn't seem like it allows me to get out of the world map-sailing view and go to port >_<!! There's a context menu that shows I'm near port in the lower left corner but tapping Enter or any of the action keys doesn't bring it up?
Dang it. Any advice would be appreciated.